Game Reviews

Division Cell

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Division Cell
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| Division Cell

These days, if your iOS puzzler doesn't display the kind of arty sheen usually reserved for high-end design catalogues, you don't have much of a hope.

Division Cell is the latest to skilfully exhibit tasteful colours and funky transitions in the name of gently mind-tickling entertainment.

It also employs a pretty original gameplay twist, but unlike such recent examples as Strata and Blip Blup, it doesn't quite pay off.

Hard cell

Division Cell coaxes you in with bouncy, finely calibrated tutorial sections, spacey electronica, and simple controls. But its core gameplay isn't quite clear or compelling enough.

It's all about manipulating the boundaries of multiple interconnected geometric shapes so that they all subscribe to the same pre-set shape, whether that be square or triangular.

By tapping on a shape, it will expand or contract on whichever sides contain a dot. As shapes can't overlap each other, they'll also affect any adjacent shapes accordingly.

If that all sounds a little vague or convoluted, then you'll begin to understand the problem here. The lack of a clearly defined, immediately graspable concept is one of Division Cell's major snags.

Out of shape

This lack of a clear concept also results in some wishy-washy tap-and-hope gameplay. Rather than sitting patiently and formulating a logical plan of attack, we found ourselves tapping away randomly to try and stumble upon a solution.

What's worse is that this seemed to work in a number of cases. In fact, on a few levels we tried tapping mindlessly around the screen and found that a solution presented itself before too long.

There is a three-star system that rewards a swift, accurate and efficient approach, but the point remains that Division Cell's foundations aren't quite as solid as they need to be.

Awarding a third star for the speed of the solution is also a bit silly, and runs counter to the idea of carefully considering your response. In fact, it simply means you'll run through once to find the solution, and again to do it all properly by memory, which grows tiresome.

Division Cell looks and sounds like the next in a long line of fresh and confidently executed iOS puzzlers, but thanks to a lack of clarity and purpose, it doesn't quite play out that way.

Division Cell

Division Cell is an attractive casual puzzler, but its wishy-washy concept and vague gameplay means it never truly gets its hooks into you
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.